Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead - Softcover

Mesle, C. Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1599471329 ISBN 13: 9781599471327

Verlag: Templeton Foundation Press,U.S., 2008

Inhaltsangabe

Process thought is the foundation for studies in many areas of contemporary philosophy, theology, political theory, educational theory, and the religion-science dialogue. It is derived from Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy, known as process theology, which lays a groundwork for integrating evolutionary biology, physics, philosophy of mind, theology, environmental ethics, religious pluralism, education, economics, and more.

In Process-Relational Philosophy, C. Robert Mesle breaks down Whitehead's complex writings, providing a simple but accurate introduction to the vision that underlies much of contemporary process philosophy and theology. In doing so, he points to a "way beyond both reductive materialism and the traps of Cartesian dualism by showing reality as a relational process in which minds arise from bodies, in which freedom and creativity are foundational to process, in which the relational power of persuasion is more basic than the unilateral power of coercion."

Because process-relational philosophy addresses the deep intuitions of a relational world basic to environmental and global thinking, it is being incorporated into undergraduate and graduate courses in philosophy, educational theory and practice, environmental ethics, and science and values, among others. Process-Relational Philosophy: A Basic Introduction makes Whitehead's creative vision accessible to all students and general readers.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

C. Robert Mesle is a recognized authority on process thought and the author of the acclaimed Process Theology: A Basic Introduction (1993), the most widely read introduction to process theology. A professor and chair of the philosophy and religion department of Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, he received his PhD from Northwestern University. He is a board member of the International Process Network and the China Project of the Center for Process Studies and serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Theology and Philosophy and Process Studies. He resides in Lamoni, Iowa.

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Process-Relational Philosophy

AN INTRODUCTION TO ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

By C. Robert Mesle

TEMPLETON PRESS

Copyright © 2008 C. Robert Mesle
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-59947-132-7

Contents

Being and Becoming: A Personal Preface.....................................
ix
Chapter 1: A Process-Relational World: An Adventure That Matters...........
3
Chapter 2: Imaginative Generalization: The Search for a Comprehensive 
Vision.....................................................................
11
Chapter 3: Minds, Bodies, and Experience: Envisioning a Unified Self.......
20
Chapter 4: Experience All the Way Down: Seeking an Imaginative Leap........
31
Chapter 5: Reality as Relational Process: Substance and Process............
42
Chapter 6: Reality as a Causal Web: A Constructive Postmodernism...........
54
Chapter 7: Unilateral Power: Power, Value, and Reality.....................
65
Chapter 8: Relational Power: So What?......................................
72
Chapter 9: Creativity, Freedom, and God: What Makes Freedom Possible?......
79
Chapter 10: Looking Ahead: The Future of Process-Relational Thought........
89
Appendix: Getting Technical: Whitehead's Language..........................
93
Notes......................................................................
111
Suggested Reading..........................................................
119
Index......................................................................
121

CHAPTER 1

A Process-Relational World

AN ADVENTURE THAT MATTERS

Rationalism never shakes off its status of an experimentaladventure.... Rationalism is an adventure in the clarificationof thought, progressive and never final. But it is an adventurein which even partial success has importance.

—Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reaylit

Ideas shape actions, so it matters how we think aboutreality, the world, and ourselves. I don't mean that onlypeople who believe in one particular religion or philosophycan be good or intelligent people. But, clearly, it does matter howwe think about the world. I want to begin by suggesting three reasonswhy you might want to learn more about process-relationalthought. The first is simply wonder—the philosopher's joy in wonderingabout this incredible, amazing world. Second, thinking of theworld as deeply interwoven—as an ever-renewing relational process—can change the way we feel and act. Finally, we need a coherentvision of our world, something that can engage people from many differentscientific, cultural, philosophical, and religious perspectives.

The primary purpose of this book is to provide a basic introductionto the process-relational philosophy inspired principally byAlfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), especially as expressed in hisseminal 1929 work Process and Reality. This will not be a neutral introduction.I want to persuade you that process-relational philosophy isa vision that matters, that is worth taking seriously, even as it willinevitably require us to criticize, improve, and, in some respects, transcendit. Process-relational thinking has a long history stretchingback at least to the Buddha and the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitusin the sixth century BCE. While there are many contemporaryforms of process-relational thought, Whitehead provides one particularlyclear and focused vision of reality shared by many people andgroups around the world.

Unfortunately, Whitehead was developing his profoundly newvision of the world just as Anglo-American philosophers were throwingout the metaphysical baby with the bath water. Understandably,they found many metaphysical questions and answers to be emptyand useless—literally meaningless. Yet, the need for a comprehensivevision of reality has only grown greater since Whitehead first introducedthis philosophy. With the dramatic growth of science in everycorner, the great emergence of ecological awareness, the explosion ofthought about religious diversity, and both increased conflict andincreased dialogue between science and religion, we need more thanever to find ways of thinking that can pull these many conversationstogether in meaningful ways. This book reflects the convictions of anetwork of people who believe that process-relational thought canprovide such a unifying vision.

PROCESS, TIME, AND WONDER

An artist friend of mine observed that great art can make us simultaneouslycry out, "Holy Cow!" and "Of course!" Great art can makeus see something in a radically new way, while at the same time helpingus to see that this new vision fits, that it feels right. My goal inthis little book is to offer a philosophical vision of reality, and ofhuman existence in the world that makes you say both "HolyCow!" and "Of course!" So far as I succeed, things will snap intoplace so that you say, "It's so obvious. Why didn't I see that before?That is how I always experienced the world, but I never knew howto say it."

Whitehead's Process and Reality is a very tough book, so as a graduatestudent thirty years ago, I took a break and walked over to LakeMichigan, trying to understand what "process" was all about. Theweather was gray and the lake, choppy. "What is the alternative?" Iasked myself. What if the world were not in process? Would LakeMichigan somehow be sitting there waveless in the future, waitingfor waves to break on it? Suddenly, the world jolted, as if it had beenajar and unexpectedly dropped into place with a snap.

The future does not exist. There is no future Lake Michigan waitingfor water to fill it or waves to lap at its shores. The future does notexist. I looked at the world around me with wide, amazed eyes. Myeyes did not exist in the future. The sidewalk did not exist in the future.The foot that I was going to set down on the sidewalk in a momentdid not exist yet: Only the foot in the present existed. I practicallyskipped home, watching the sidewalk and my feet (and my watchingitself) become. At Morry's Deli, I looked in the window (becoming) andwatched the pastrami becoming, and the people becoming.

When I returned to my third-floor apartment, I looked down intothe yard next door and had a sense of vertigo. Time is like falling, Ithought. We are always on the verge of falling forward into nothingness;but, in each moment, the world becomes anew, and the creativeadvance continues.

How could I explain this to my wife? I put a record on the player.(Yes, this was many years ago, but the image will work just as well witha CD.) Our traditional Christian view of time assumes that the futureexists very much like music on a record or CD. All the "music" isstamped simultaneously onto the plastic—Pssst! The needle or laserreads the grooves and dips so that music leaps up as if it were becoming.But every note is already there, beginning, middle, and end. Fromthe perspective of the disc, nothing new happens. The future alreadyexists on a record or a CD.

Consider the idea that the future already exists from the perspectiveof the Christian theology that has so profoundly shaped Westernthought. Christians have traditionally believed in an omnipotent,omniscient God who creates "time" but stands outside of...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Templeton Foundation Press,U.S.
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1599471329
• ISBN 13: 9781599471327
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 123
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Anja's; service@anja-karge.de; ; Von-Gumppenberg-Str. 94; Pöttmes; 86554; Deutschland